FLEXNER VS. HARVARD

In his recently published book, "Universities: American, English, and German", Dr. Abraham Flexner attacks, among other things, the Harvard Business School. It tries to "short circuit experience", he charges.

In considering this criticism, it may be well to inquire what the aim of all education is if not the short circuiting of experience. In the final analysis, an educated man is merely one who has studied and benefited by the knowledge and experience of those who have gone before him. The Business School is admittedly doing that very thing, perhaps in a somewhat more practical way than most other educational institutions, but still with the idea that the business man who is trained to consider the problems of the future in the light of what has happened in the past will be more capable and more efficient than an untrained competitor of equal ability. From the results which have been attained so far, judged largely by the eagerness of business concerns to enlist the services of graduates of the school, it seems evident that the idea is at least fundamentally right. This of course does not in any way mean that the Business School has rached the millenium; on the contrary it is still in the experimental stage, and there is no doubt much room for improvement. Despite its faults, however, the Business School is based on a sound principle, and Dr. Flexner's charges fall to the ground before serious examination.